About Us

OurVision

QC Harm Reduction (QCHR) is a 501(c)3, founded January 1st, 2015, in Davenport, Iowa, by Kim Brown and René Dickerson.

Kim is a mother, grandmother, and nurse who lost her son Andy to an accidental heroin overdose on May 25th, 2011. QCHR is a coalition of volunteers and allies dedicated to improving quality of life for those who inject drugs or are seeking support for a substance use disorder.

The organization consists of an Executive Director, Vice President of Operations, and five board members. QCHR and its allies were instrumental in bringing attention to the opioid crisis to the state legislature in 2012. After four years of persistence and challenging work,QCHR is credited for the enactment of Iowa’s first lifesaving naloxone access legislation passed in the state in 2016.

QCHR promotes and advocates for harm-reduction services and a public-health response for those experiencing substance usedisorders. Since its founding, through community outreach and events, QCHR has distributed over 1,000 injectable, one-time-usenaloxone kits in the Quad Cities community and throughout the state of Iowa, saving many lives. Most importantly, QCHR provides hopeand love to people who have been shamed and stigmatized for using drugs and for suffering from substance use disorder.

Our mission, simply put, is to save lives. Every life is precious and should not be diminished through societal stigma or shame. The opioidepidemic has taken more lives than car accidents, gun violence deaths, and the AIDS epidemic at its peak in the 1980s, combined. Sucha continuous loss of life must be addressed. QCHR continues the work of providing harm-reduction services to those who often feeldiscarded and forgotten. The hope is that QCHR will bring love, acceptance, and hope back to a community that will forever grieve theunnecessary loss of its children, friends, and family members to a preventable public-health issue.